artists who inspire me...

When I was a little girl I remember coming home from the library with a huge stack of books! I loved looking at the pictures, and I would pull books off the shelf based on how pretty the pictures were. These early experiences pouring over books and getting lost in their worlds made me want to be an illustrator. There was something magical and special about "reading" through pictures. There are tons of artists who inspire me, and I thought I'd share some of my all time favorites, the ones I still can't stop looking at for their rich color, details and mastery of design. A tribute to those who have inspired me, and make me want to be a better illustrator every day...

Edmund Dulac

Tasha Tudor

Mary GrandPre

  

Kinuko Y. Craft

  

Scott Gustafson

Owl and Mouse look at the moon

one of my daily mini paintings out of my 4x3" sketchbook (tiny!), but I liked it so much I kept going with it... harvest crescent moon out tonight and it feels very fall...

Painting time-lapse

"they explored the treetops"

Here's a fun time-lapse I did while painting the finishes for my book. It was pretty fun to see afterwards! The only part that was hard was trying not to move my board, and racing my daylight! It took a total of 6 hours.

daily painting #1

Ive been trying a new exercise, doing a painting a day in an ity-bity watercolor journal! Sometimes there is so much to do in a day, errands, emails, other work that I never get to painting anything, so I decided at the very minimum I would paint one small thing. Here we go!

Animated music video "The Ancestor" by Darlingside

I recently had a huge opportunity to help create an animated music video for the band Darlingside, with two friends Abe Dieckman who did the amazing animation, and Timothy Hahn, producer. I created the background paintings and textures, as well as many of the individual assets: trees, clouds, plants, stars, furniture etc. It was such a fun project to work on, and I realize how much I miss collaboration! It turned out beautifully and we are all so proud to share it! It was just mentioned on Cartoon Brew, Everything Animated, Maimed and Tamed, and was a staff pick on Vimeo! We are trying to get the word out so please share it in as many ways as you can.

"The Ancestor" by Darlingside – Official Music Video from Crazy Lake Pictures on Vimeo.

credits
music by: Darlingside
director: Keith Boynton
producer: Mike Lavoie
producer/editor: Timothy Hahn
lead animator: Abraham Dieckman
lead artist: Pamela Goodman

Bella & Luci's book!

The last six months have been spent working on a secret book project, that I've been dying to share for forever! I finally finished the illustrations in July and had a couple copies printed. It was a surprise book for friends of ours (and awesome photographers at Bellalu Photography!) Lindsey & Nathan Freitas and their adorable daughters Bella & Luci. The idea was planted in my head last December, when Lindsey mentioned to me how she would love to have a storybook about her two girls. I had so much fun writing, and sketching out the thumbnails for the book trying to figure out the flow of a full 32 page book (and trying my hardest not to mention anything to them the whole time!). And finally after months of multiple dummies and redrawing, I tackled the final step: painting 34 watercolor illustrations! Whew it's done, and I'm pretty proud of it!

heres a couple in-progress sketches from my book dummy:

and the finishes:

Its official! I am now Mrs Pamela Goodman!

It's been a while! I have been busy all spring and summer planning and getting ready for my wedding to my wonderful husband Luke Goodman! We were just married this August, and I made the switch to change my name. So I'm officially Pamela Goodman, and it feels really good to have a fresh start, with a new logo and look. Time to order new business cards & promos! My old website and emails will continue to forward to my new one:

www.pamelagoodmanart.com 

new promos

My spring goal was to send out some new promo postcards to book publishers. After a year and a half of revamping my portfolio, and working on some new paintings, I finally put together a brand new set of promo mailers to send out! ( I can't believe its been since fall of 2010 ) It feels really good to have spent more time developing my style and having fun with what I really like to illustrate. This time around I included response cards, and Im glad I did because I already got some positive responses back! So they are off to my targeted publishers! woohoo.. next project book dummy submission...

my cover letter, envelope and postcards

Whats Inside? A color concept book

A random idea for a color concept book came to me about a year ago, and I re-discovered the sketches the other day. So heres what I came up with so far, the little bunny just crept in as I went along! hehe.

new work: "Go Fish!"

New Illustration: The Summoning

The Summoning

A newer painting I did for a novel cover concept. Its watercolor & digital, although Im trying not to overuse the digital aspect. I love the bright translucency of colors you can get with watercolors alone, but my photo/ scanning looses some of that. (Time to get a larger flatbed scanner!)

Beauty and the Beast cover illustration

beauty and the beast

I did this illustration for a young adult novel cover concept. The first sketches were too much like a girl and wolf, so I added horns and pants to make the beast a little more human and beastly at the same time. Beauty wears a locket with a mysterious picture of a handsome prince, but she has yet to find out that its the Beast himself.

( first sketch, and revised final sketch)

Edwardian Beetles

Edwardian beetles! Luke and I went to the Edwardian Ball in January and it was such a magical festive night! So many great costumes, and creativity everywhere. Plus dancing in a fancy dress and top hat? yes please! We will have to go again next year.

New Illustration: The Beetle Ball

A new illustration I have been working on over the last 6 months! These critters have been waiting on me forever, and whew its finally finished. Now time to go find some blue grass music and dance!!

Happy Christmas!

The first snow

Gingerbread bugs

New Illustration: Lost in Leaves

Ive been working hard on some new illustrations, a few are still in process and half painted. This is my most recently finished painting, a cover illustration based on the myth of Daphne & Apollo. Apollo was struck by Cupids arrow and falls madly in love with the nymph Daphne. She runs away from him and calls on her father the river god who, protecting her, turns her into a laurel tree.  Here are some photos of the painting process along the way. I started with a clean line drawing that I transferred onto my watercolor board with my homemade graphite transfer paper. Then I painted in washes of watercolor and used salt to create the mossy texture. The final touches were digital in photoshop to clean up some edges and emphasize some lights and darks in the atmosphere.

"bottled" or rather, unbottled. . .

This painting was done a while ago, but I thought it was perfect for this weeks Illustration Friday topic.

character sketches

Initial sketches for an upcoming book project, The Circle of the Ruby Red Stone by Alix Leslie.

{ cultivate }

Illustration Friday "warning . . ."

Today is brought to you by the letter....

Since the new year started I decided I wanted to do more personal projects for pure fun. Do I decided to take a letter of the alphabet everyday and draw things that start with that letter. So far I'm on the letter "P" yay thats a good letter haha! (which means I didn't do it every day, but pretty close!). I found that by doing this I felt freed up to just draw without really thinking if it was correct or even"good."

So here are a few pages out of my sketchbook :)

{Goldengate Bridge Mural}

The bridge mural is complete! It took about 2 full days to paint. Its located next to the Backpackers Hostel, on Derby Street, off of Taylor & Geary Blvd. My little contribution to the mural art of San Francisco!